CNET Accused of Copyright Infringement for Distributing LimeWire

CBS Interactive, the owner of CNET, is being sued for facilitating “massive copyright infringement” for distributing the LimeWire software, a file sharing service a federal judge ruled illegal last year.

A lawsuit brought by rappers and others accuses CBS of profiting from distributing 220 million copies of LimeWire on CNET’s download.com site since 2008, or 95 percent off all LimeWire downloads.

“The CBS defendants received massive amounts of revenue from P2P provders on a ‘pay per download’ basis and also from advertising revenues generated by advertisements placed on the download screen for P2P software,” (.pdf) according to the complaint, lodged in Los Angeles federal court late Tuesday.

The lawsuit, which maintains CBS was “well aware” of LimeWire’s infringement uses, comes as the Recording Industry Association of America’s damages trial against LimeWire gets under way in a New York federal court.

A New York federal jury is being empaneled to decide how much LimeWire and its owner should pay the record labels for wanton infringement committed on LimeWire’s service. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood ruled last year that LimeWire’s users commit a “substantial amount of copyright infringement,” and that the Lime Group — the company behind the application — “has not taken meaningful steps to mitigate infringement.”

The record labels claim LimeWire, owned by the Lime Group, owes more than $1 billion in damages. Judge Wood shuttered the service in October.

The case against CBS accuses CNET of offering “videos, articles and other media that instructed how to use P2P software to locate pirated copies of copyrighted works and remove electronic protections placed on digital music files.” A 2009 LimeWire review, the suit noted, described the service as a “post-Napster clone” and gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

CBS, according to the complaint, maintains a “business model to profit directly from the demand for infringing P2P clinets.”

Among others, the plaintiffs include Detron Bendross, of 2 Live Crew, Trisco Smith-Pearson of The Force MDs and Eric Jackson and De’Angelo Holmes, both of the Ying Yang Twins. Alki David, a digital media entrepreneur, is also a plaintiff. They all assert their copyrights were illegally distributed on LimeWire.

CBS said in a statement that the lawsuit is “riddled with inaccuracies, and we are confident that we will prevail.”

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